Route 13 Landslide Impact: Truck Driver Killed Inside Cab Near Pakse After Rockslide Hit

Pakse, Laos—A massive landslide tore down a hillside along National Route 13 late Sunday, dumping tons of mud and boulders onto a passing heavy freight truck. Emergency crews confirmed the driver was crushed inside the cab and died instantly under the weight of the debris.

The rockslide buried a two-hundred-meter section of the primary transport corridor, halting all vehicle movements between southern hubs. Heavy earth-moving equipment was dispatched to the scene to clear soil and locate buried transport vehicles.

Rescuers worked for hours with heavy excavators to clear mud encasing the crushed cab of the commercial truck. Paramedics confirmed the driver had sustained fatal crush injuries before extraction efforts could be completed.

Provincial police shut down National Route 13 entirely, establishing detours onto unpaved rural bypass routes. Hundreds of commercial trucks and passenger buses remain stranded along both sides of the landslide zone.

"Heavy rain saturated the hillside earth, causing a sudden slope failure directly onto the passing commercial truck," a highway department engineer explained.

Road clearance crews operated heavy machinery through the night, clearing tons of fallen trees, mud, and boulders off the asphalt lanes. Highway police set up safety perimeters to prevent curious onlookers from approaching unstable hillside sections.

Transport companies halted scheduled freight movements along the southern route as geological teams assessed surrounding hillsides for further land slip risks. Local authorities warned that clearing operations could take several days due to continuous soil movement.

The body of the truck driver was transferred to a regional hospital morgue for formal identification and release to relatives.

Highway engineers are deploying emergency stabilization crews to clear the primary freight route safely.

National Route 13 remains completely closed to through traffic as heavy machinery removes remaining earth.